MovieChat Forums > The Blue Gardenia (1953) Discussion > Living Quarters Are Modest

Living Quarters Are Modest


The living quarters for 3 women who had jobs is extremely modest. They share a home and sleep in what appears to be a living room with two beds thrown in the middle of the room plus a couch used as a bed for one of them. They all seem to have jobs so why are they portrayed to live very modestly?

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This is early fifties, remember. They worked at the Telephone Company, very modest wages. In order to have enough for food, clothing, utilities, rent and the occasional treat this was what young working women thought was an adequate living situation. I was there, I know.

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Right they paid very pooly back then. You know what use to give me a laugh?
On shows like NYPD BLUE they show the Detecives living poorly in losey apts, c'mon now uniforms live in Long Island with their own homes and Dicks in NYC earn a lot more then uniforms



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The housing dollar doesn't go far in NYC, especially for people living alone. You can't judge by the wages because apartments here cost a fortune. If street cops are living in ranch houses in Long Island, it's probably because either they are working two jobs or their spouses work full-time too.

Beyond that, people working long irregular hours often don't spend a lot of effort and money on prettying up their places. Some of them even do the radical thing and sock away money for retirement instead. It's a welcome touch of realism when a modern TV show doesn't portray all NYC people as living in lavish big places beyond their likely means. "Friends", anyone?

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That was Los Angeles.

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You think the apartments in Friends were lavish? They were dreary and not very big at all.One room for kitchen and living room, and two small bedrooms.

I guess it's like looking at clouds. You see one thing and I see another. Peace.

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I know, right? Apartments on Friends never looked like anything special (plus they said the one apartment was rent controlled). Obviously they needed some room to film the cast without the audience always feeling like the walls were closing in on them.


Mag, Darling, you're being a bore.

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are you still alive??

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That generation lived within their means. No easy access to credit - there were no credit cards in those days. You might have department store "charge" cards (or "charge-a-plates", as they were know), or local credit with a store. But the BankAmerica Card (now VISA) and Master Charge (MasterCard) were still a few years away. My parents lived in LA during this time, and told me many times they bought a refrigerator for $25, and paid it out at $5 a month.

Different times....

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Just because there were no credit cards like today's, doesn't mean people of modest means didn't have easy access to credit. Your point about local credit with a store was actually the way a lot of people lived.

Also in the 1950s people were being strongly encouraged to get charge cards and buy a lot of fancy stuff like refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines.

You've got me?! Who's got you?!

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I agree with the above posts regarding living within their means. Also, this wasn't too many years after World War II and there was still a big demand for housing. Landlords would have probably been able to charge higher rents than what would be proportional to today's prices, especially in a big city such as LA.

Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.

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Just because a person has a job doesn't mean they get paid that well, either. It was automatically assumed that women would get married and the husband would do 100% of the support. Then as now, women on average were paid less than men.

After some of the *beep!* holes I had to hold down two and sometimes three jobs in order to afford (see Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed) their place looked pretty good, actually. And a good deal bigger.

Women roomed together for protection as well. A woman living alone in those days was asking for trouble.

Plus the remarks about the housing shortage after WWII are spot on, they were lucky to get that place.

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I thought the setting was very authentic and appropriate to the women's situation.

The Wire...the best series in the history of television

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I remember when I was a telephone operator in the very early 80's for the phone company, yes still on those old switchboards. I worked 3p-11p. We didn't get paid well at all even then. It was a fascinating job but I had a roommate. I wouldn't have made it on my income alone.

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I actually LOVE the girls' apartment. It was really nice in its modesty. Not like the unrealistic, huge (NYC) apartments we see on "Friends" and "Seinfeld."

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